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Week 3 Sermon Questions For Groups

November 8, 2015

Multiply: The Principle of Multiplication.

Introduction:

God is in the multiplication business. Not only can He make something out of nothing, God can take a little and turn it into a lot. In Luke 9:10-17, God took five tiny loaves of bread and two fishes, multiplied them and fed a crowd of 5000. It is lesson in duplication, one that has application in our lives. Matthew 25:29 tells us, “For the man who uses well what he is given shall be given more, and he shall have abundance. But from the man who is unfaithful, even what little responsibility he has shall be taken from him.”

Something To Talk About:

In the famous Bible story of feeding the 5,000, Jesus asks for the two fish and five loaves. He takes it, gives thanks to God for it and then feeds a huge crowd. God is in the multiplication business because when God is added to the equation, He can do far more than we can do by ourselves.

  1. It has to be blessed before it can multiply: It has to be blessed before it can multiply. What do you think would have happened if the disciples decided to just give the fish and loaves to the nearest person. I’m guessing here, but maybe one or two people would have enjoyed a light snack. It probably would have never multiplied, because the reason it multiplied was because Jesus blessed it. Hebrews 7 tells us that when we tithe, Jesus himself receives our tithes and blesses them. When you give it to the Lord first and the Lord puts His blessing on it, then, and only then, does it have the ability to multiply.
  2. It has to be given away to multiply:  Another possible scenario. What if the disciples had eaten the fish and loaves Jesus blessed themselves. It would never have multiplied. They would have had a couple of bites of food each instead of full stomachs and twelve baskets of leftovers. They had to give it away so that it could multiply. Giving our first fruits, our first 10 percent to the Lord is what causes us to be blessed. Giving generously is anything you give beyond 10 percent. In Malachi 3:10, God says, and I am paraphrasing here, “Go ahead. I dare you. See if you can out-give Me.” The second principle of multiplication is it must be shared if they are to multiply. 

Questions:

  1. Read 2 Corinthians 9: 6-15: When God blesses us with material things, how does He expect us to respond (vv. 11-13)? Why do you think God blesses us with material things?
  2. What does the feeding of the 5,000 reveal about Christ’s provision for those in need today? What does it reveal about the means Christ will use to meet those needs?
  3. Since little becomes much when placed in Christ’s hands, what is our responsibility? How can we be generous with what Christ has provided for us?
  4. What is your first step toward seeing God’s power multiply in your life?
  5. How can you get involved in meeting the needs of those around you? Should the size or the depth of the need impact our decision to do something to help and trust God to provide.
  6. What things can we learn about the abundance of God’s provision from Luke 9:12-17.

Take One Thing Home with You

It is impossible to out give God. But you can set set yourself up for blessings.  There really is a blessing in giving to others, especially to those who have nothing to give back in response to our generosity. We are never more like the Lord than when we forgive and when we give to others who have nothing to offer us in return. Isn’t that exactly how it is with us in our own relationship with the Lord? We have nothing to offer God, yet He loved us so much he gave us His Only Son.

We serve a giving God for sure! Every good and perfect gift comes from above, and sometimes in the hectic stress of the day we forget that. Everything we possess in this life comes directly from the hand of God, by His grace. God is so generous, so kind to us, it makes sense we would repay his kindness forward to people in need. Because love is giving, love is an action which in reality makes love a verb and not a noun. Giving is love in action.

My prayer is that we will honor the Lord by giving our time, talent and treasure to the interests of our Lord and being a faithful steward of all that He has entrusted to us. And that we will seize the opportunities by giving and discovering why it really is more blessed to give than it is to receive. Experience for yourself the kind of payback that money just can’t buy, the type of giving that leaves you satisfied and filled with joy looking for ways to give more. Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.”